DISTRICT
The next school board meeting is 6 p.m. Monday, July 16, in the district boardroom, 503 N. Sequim Ave. The public is invited to attend, and time is set aside for public comment. To view the agenda and minutes of past meetings, click on “Board of Directors” and “2017-2018 agendas” on the district’s website at www.sequimschools.org.
GREYWOLF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
More than 90 third-grade students from Sherri Burke’s, Shannon Green’s, Rio Nersinger’s and Sara Benjamin’s classes at Greywolf Elementary recently planted about 450 trees under the supervision of Merrill & Ring and Alta Forest Products at a nearby logging site in Sequim.
This is the fourth year the students have committed to planting trees for the future and we loved it! Students learn about our renewable resource and gain insight into the day and life of a forester.
This year we also were especially proud of two Sequim graduates who are on their way to becoming foresters. They worked with our students helping to plant trees. The students were able to see what the future holds for them through education.
Over the course of several visits with Sequim High School FFA members, Greywolf students learned about different types offarming, what can be found on farms, what is needed to maintain a successful farm and how farms are helpful to us.
The visits concluded with FFA students bringing some of their farm animals to Greywolf. Students were able see a goat and her kids, a baby lamb, a chicken, a bunny — and second-grade student Timmy Seelye brought Rosie, his own goat, to show and talk about.
Greywolf second-graders want to thank Sequim High School FFA for taking the time to visit our classrooms and share their knowledge and experience with us. Many students expressed an interest in being part of FFA themselves one day!
This school year, fifth-grade students from Jennifer Lopez’s class were recipients of biography books donated by Janet Thomas of Sequim. The students each chose a famous person to read about and selected a second source to further their research. Students were given the task of choosing whether their famous person would best be described as creative, persistent, or hard working and backing up their opinion with evidence from their research.
Here are more of their essays:
“One word to describe Harry Houdini”
By Josh McNair
One word that describes Harry Houdini is persistent.
In the book, “Who was Harry Houdini?” it says, “It had taken five years to make the handcuffs. But it had taken Houdini only one hour to escape from them.” This shows that he is persistent because he did not give up on trying to escape the handcuffs like most people would have. He kept trying till he got out of them and escaped. This is not the only reason I think he is persistent though.
In the same book it says, “Harry had to wait more than a month before he and his plane actually got off the ground.” This also shows that Harry Houdini was a persistent person because unlike some people he kept trying to fly and fulfill his dream. Some people probably didn’t even try to fly a plane. There is still one more reason why I think Harry Houdini is a persistent person.
Lastly on Biography.com it says, “Houdini continued performing escape acts until his death.” This shows that Harry Houdini was a persistent person because he did not just stop doing what he loved to do, he kept doing it until he died. I don’t know anybody else who would willingly do dangerous escape acts until they died.
All this shows that Harry Houdini was definitely a persistent person.
“Dolly Parton, an amazing Hard-working person!”
By Elissa Brown
I would describe Dolly Parton as hard-working because she used to be a very poor child who came from a very large but poor family who lived in Tennessee. Her father was a farmer and did not make much money. When she was 18 she packed her bags and moved to Nashville. Dolly Parton was very hard working, in Who is Dolly Parton? on page 45 it says, “Everyday Dolly knocked on doors and tried to give tapes away of her songs. No luck she took waitress and office jobs to get by.” This shows that she will work until she has accomplished what she wants.
In the same book it also says on page 45, “Dolly finally got to work on a local TV show at 5 a.m. every morning. But Dolly had hardly any left for food. Sometimes she ate ketchup and water soup. Dolly was so hungry that she went into hotels and took leftovers from trays that people had put in halls.” This shows that Dolly Parton was very had-working about her career.
Dolly Parton tried out to be a singer on a TV show with 20 others, and she got the job! The audience missed the singer she replaced and they would heckle Dolly. On page 52 of the book it said, “Dolly suffered six months but she stuck it out.” Most people would quit because of an audience like that!
The book also said, “Dolly did a hundred shows in recording sessions. They might tape two shows in an hour!” This shows that she is a very hard-working person and she will not rest until the job is done! What really shows how hard-working Dolly Parton is on page 55 in my book it said, “Dolly only got a few hours of sleep each night. Sometimes she slept in her makeup and wig so she could get to work early in the morning, the next day.” This shows she was very hard working with her career because she was only getting a few hours of sleep every day.
After working with Wagoner for quite a while, she was recognized by RCA Records and was signed as an artist. In the Encyclopedia Brittanica article, “Dolly Parton,” paragraph three says, “Parton soon came to the attention of the music industry moguls at the RCA Records and subsequently recorded more than a dozen songs together with Wagoner-on hit songs-together for the RCA label. She rapidly emerged as one of country music’s most popular singers.” This shows how all of Dolly Parton’s work has paid off, and she is a very hard-working person.
In the same article, paragraph 7 it said, “In 1999 she was inducted into Country Music Hall of Fame. The next year Parton received the U.S Government National Medal of Arts, and in 2006 she was recognized at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C for her lifetime artistic achievement.” So, all of these medals show that Dolly Parton is a very hard-working person.
SEQUIM HIGH SCHOOL
After a long school year filled with dozens of performances, Sequim high School’s bands and choir groups looked to end the school year on a good note.
Under the direction of Vern Fosket, the school’s band members, along with the school’s Flag Team, closed out the school year with an End of the Year Concert on June 5, followed by the SHS choir — under the direction of John Lorentzen — on June 6.
The choir gave out several awards, including three, $500 scholarships from the SHS Choir Boosters to seniors Annabelle Armstrong, Evan James and Abby Norman.
Norman also received the Senior Recognition Award for Outstanding Leadership in Choral Music a week prior at the Senior Recognition Assembly; she selected for the award by both Lorentzen and fellow students.
SHS band award winners were many, including:
Sousa — Astrid Martin
Director’s — Olivia Barrett, Sophia Barrett
Most Improved Band — Natalie Thurston
Innovative Percussion — Tim Porter
Most Improved Percussion — Emily Klein
Armstrong — Tim Porter
Woody Herman — Joe Benjamin
Most Improved Jazz — Soraya Cogorno-Frutos
Golden Flag — Lauren Titterness
Flourish Award — Dominique Hatton
Rich Meyers Scholarship — Tim Porter.
